HOLIDAY TROTTING A POPULAR PASTIME

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 237, 27 December 1927, Page 13

HOLIDAY TROTTING A POPULAR PASTIME

IMPROVED BREEDING AND CLEAN RACING MAKE FINE SPORT The Dominion—north, south, east and west—is in the throes of a great trotting campaign during the Christmas and New Year festivities and the light-harness sport will afford enjoyment and recreation for many thousands of New Zealanders during the next few days. The popularity of trotting as a source of pleasure to the majority of the Dominion’s populace has long been recognised, and the pastime is yearly making new friends and enlisting fresh recruits. The sport has made rapid strides in advancement, and thanks to the fine work of the administrative powers in the light-harness circles, it has earned the confidence of the general public. In almost every part of New Zealand the trotting flag is flying in the sporting breeze, and many clubs, which have sprung into prominence during later years, have progressed exceedingly. BREEDING PLAYS A BIG PART The improvement in the breed of trotters and pacers in this country has played a very important part in bringing the sport up to such a high pinnacle, and a great deal of the credit for the excellent position obtaining today is due to those breeding enthusiasts, who through their zeal in fostering the sport spared no expense or trouble to secure the best blood with which to lay a solid foundation. American importations have in many instances proved the stepping-stone to higher things, and the mingling of the aristocratic sires from the land of the Stars and Stripes with Dominion mares has borne good fruit, to say nothing of the high grade stock given to New Zealand through the introduction of finest quality brood mares. Another prominent feature which in large measure accounts for the growing interest in the trotting game is the fact that the tracks are formed in such a manner as to make the racing fully spectacular, and this from the public viewpoint is a big consideration. The circumference of trotting tracks is generally six furlongs, and this feature makes the sport exertmely popular with patrons, as they can follow ! the contestants throughout the whole journey. •